Reply #92: its all in the numbers

[Hamlette]

a smaller percentage of families with one father, one mother and 6 kids are on assistance than families with one father, 5 wives and 30 kids.

Might just be that one salary can support 8 but can't support 36. Additionally, if the father in the one mother 6 kids household has a job with benefits, they are not on assistance.

No employer I know of would cover 5 wives or 30 kids.

Additionally, the father in a polyamous relationship usually does not work a "real job" because the state would take most of his salary to reimburse tax payers for the benefits paid out to the wives and children. It's a vicious cycle. The biggest polygamous groups around here make it an art to get all the government benefits they can. (All of the polygamous wives in one community started a child care center where they allegedly cared for their children. We paid child care costs of up to $500 per child in care until we figured out what they were up to. They got $500,000 per year for child care. None of them own property in their own name, it is owned by "the church". They build their own houses but never complete them so they don't pay property taxes. There is a real criminal element amoung many of the polygamists here at least. Read Under the Banner of Heaven. I'm not saying polygamy might not work but we have more polygamists than any state in the union and around here it operates more like a criminal element than a church or family unit.)